In modern day automobile racing, such as Winston Cup NASCAR and other types of racing, the automobiles are required to make a number of pit stops for refueling, tire changes, equipment adjustments, and the like. In certain fields of racing, like Winston Cup Racing, a race car must make an average of eight pit stops per 500 mile race. The wear and tear on the racing tires, which are soft rubber for high traction, mandates frequent tire replacement.
The time required to change tires and conduct other service in a pit stop can be critical to winning or losing a race. For example, a recent race event involved a loss of place from first to thirteenth for a well-known race driver because of the loss of approximately two seconds while in a pit stop. Time losses of mere seconds are especially critical during "green flag" pit stops, which are any pit stops that are necessary when the race is under the green flag and the cars are permitted to pass one another.
One particular problem with changing tires is the handling of the lug nuts that hold the wheels on the car. Pit crews typically prepare a number of wheels with fresh tires and have them on standby for pit stops. In order to minimize the time delay resulting from handling the lug nuts, it is known in the art to employ a bead of adhesive to hold each lug nut in position on the wheel. The wheel with five pre-glued lug nuts is placed onto the five threaded hub studs, which protrude through the wheel mounting holes in the wheel mounting plate. An air wrench is then used to tighten the lug nuts, one at a time, until the wheel is secured to the hub of the race car.
When the pit crewman tightens the lug nuts, one of the five lug nuts must necessarily be tightened first. As the first lug nut is tightened, the wheel is pulled into position on the hub studs. The remaining studs then exert pressure on the remaining lug nuts and often cause the glue bead to fail and pop off a lug nut.
If a lug nut pops off during the tightening process, the crewman must manually retrieve the nut or get another nut from his pocket or another nearby location, and manually put it into the air wrench or manually begin to thread it onto the lug stud. In either case, valuable time is lost. Even a time loss of a few seconds during a green flag pit stop can mean the difference between winning or losing the race.
Accordingly there is a need for a faster way to fasten lug nuts onto race car wheels.